New Doctor Who Arrives on BBC America in April

BBC America announced today that the new era of the BBC’s iconic BAFTA-winning drama, “Doctor Who,” will make its U.S. premiere on Saturday, April 17, 2010, soon after the UK broadcast.

“Doctor Who,” BBC America’s highest rated series ever, continues its tradition of rebooting with new lead actors and creative team. Matt Smith debuts as the new, Eleventh incarnation of the famous Time Lord alongside a new traveling companion, the enigmatic Amy Pond (Karen Gillan).

“Britain has a tradition of reinventing its iconic characters, like James Bond and Sherlock Holmes – and Doctor Who. In introducing the Eleventh Doctor, writer Steven Moffat is opening the show to a whole new audience, while serving fans with an exciting mix of inter galactic, time travelling adventures. We can’t wait to meet his new Doctor!” comments Richard De Croce, Senior Vice President Programming, BBC America.

BAFTA-winning writer Steven Moffat, creator of some of the most frightening and award-winning “Doctor Who” episodes to date, takes over as lead writer and executive producer. Writers for the new series include Richard Curtis (The Boat that Rocked, Love Actually), Chris Chibnall (“Law & Order UK,” “Torchwood”), Toby Whithouse (“Being Human,” “Torchwood”), Mark Gatiss (“The League of Gentlemen,” “Sherlock”) and Simon Nye (“Men Behaving Badly,” “Hardware”).

Traveling both through time and space, the new series has the mysterious Doctor and Amy Pond together exploring sixteenth century Venice, France during the 1890s and the United Kingdom in the far future, now an entire nation floating in space. The first three episodes of the 13-episode series have been confirmed as “The Eleventh Hour,” written by Steven Moffat, “The Beast Below,” also by Moffat and “Victory of the Daleks” by Mark Gatiss.

Moffat’s work includes the hit comedy “Coupling,” the critically-acclaimed thriller “Jekyll,” the new BBC series “Sherlock” and along with Edgar Wright and Joe Cornish, the screenplay for The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn – which is being directed by Steven Spielberg.

Piers Wenger (“Ashes to Ashes”) and Beth Willis (“Ashes to Ashes”) are the executive producers. It is a BBC Wales production for BBC One and distributed by BBC Worldwide.